The Thinkening Blog

What can you and I do to keep our computers safe from viruses, adware, and spyware? The first thing that comes to many people's mind is a good antivirus.

Sadly, there is no antivirus that can keep out ALL infections. A lot of it has to do with the user's own actions, such as not downloading email attachments, not downloading free software off the Internet, av...

Many people have recently informed me that they have been contacted over the phone (or on a website popup) by someone claiming to be from Microsoft or a computer security company. If you ever receive this type of call, here is what to look out for:

The caller uses urgent wording and claims that your computer is infected or some other problem has occurred.

Tomorrow is a big day in the world of computer operating systems (exciting, I know)! Microsoft will release its first-ever FREE upgrade to the newest version of Windows, called Windows 10. This will be available for computers running Windows 7 and 8.1. I have been testing it on various computers since October 2014, and it is pretty nice, with new features that Windows has never had before and excellent performance.

The hard drive disk (HDD) that stores your programs, documents, music, & photos in your laptop or desktop computer is a mechanical device with many moving parts. Inside your HDD are spinning platters that look like silver CDs, and a little arm that moves back and forth like the arm on a record player. This means that it takes time for the computer to physically look up the millions of bits of data that it needs to run throughout the day.

Using Google Cloud Print (http://goo.gl/Mm1eT), it is possible to connect your printer to the Internet and print to it from your smartphone or tablet. This will enable you to print photos or documents FROM anywhere you have an Internet connection TO your home or office printer!

To use Google Cloud Print, you will need to have Google Chrome on your home or office computer that is connected to your printer. A few...

There is an increasing threat in the world of computer scams that all should be aware of: Some individuals have informed me that they have been contacted over the phone by someone claiming to be from Microsoft or a computer security company. If you ever receive this type of call, here is what to look out for:

As computer technology advances on, the old ways of doing certain things become increasingly inefficient, overly costly, or both. This is especially true of home phone service. With Internet access becoming more ubiquitous, it is possible to have ultra-inexpensive, high-quality home phone service without having to rely on the phone companies.

There is now a way to connect a regular home phone to your Internet router and use it to m...

During the past several months, I've encountered a large number of computers that have been infected with a particularly unpleasant type of computer virus. This kind of infection is called a 'rogue anti-virus'. It takes on many forms, and you may have already seen something like this show up on your computer. I'm sending this message to let you know what to look out for and

What would the Internet be without e-mail? It's a fast, efficient method of communication. It entertains us and helps us keep in touch with family, friends and others. However, when using e-mail to communicate, there are some unofficial etiquette guidelines that can make the experience more pleasant for the ones who read your messages.

These 'guidelines' are unofficial in the sense that e-mail is completely voluntary...

The venerable Foxit PDF Reader has updated to version 5! It sports a new interface and updated looks. Depending on where you download the new version from, it also sports a force-fed toolbar that can be considered intrusive and unneccessary.

If you download the installation package from CNet, as you proceed through the installation process, you come to a window that asks if you'd like to make Ask the default search provider. It also ask...

Well, the time has come to upgrade! I recieved my copy of Windows 7 Home Premium the other day from Amazon.com, and I wasted no time in getting the thing installed. Here is my experience with upgrading to the much-praised Microsoft Windows 7.

Every once in a while, you see something that makes you wonder, "Why isn't everyone doing this?" It might be something that simplifies life in an obvious way or it might be something that just makes sense.

From
time to time, I notice my keyboard. Now, of course I am aware of my
keyboard and use it regularly while at the computer, but noticing the
keyboard is different from day-to-day use. It's sort of like how you
drive to work each day, but how much do you really look at, or 'notice', the
bui...

As a long-time customer service
representative, I am always alert to the customer service
shortcomings of the companies I deal with. The following is a
particularly bad experience that made me decide not to deal with the
provider of this terrible service ever again.

Spybot Search and Destroy is a powerful
tool in the fight against spyware and adware. It has a highly
effective scanning method and finds threats that other tools might
miss. It's free, receives regular updates, and has so many features
you might not know what to do with them all.